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MAYA to MudBox THREAD! How to's, workflow, questions!

48 REPLIES 48
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Message 1 of 49
Anonymous
969 Views, 48 Replies

MAYA to MudBox THREAD! How to's, workflow, questions!

MAYA to MUDBOX WORKFLOW

PLEASE POST!!




Well Ive Just about Read every thread on here that may help me with using Mudbox in my workflow. I figured I would create a thread specifically for that reason as I dont think every MAYA user should have to go through what I have been doing and should find a place that caters to a MAYA -- > Mudbox workflow.

With that said. If the moderators or those that understand MUDBOX inside and out and understand MAYA inside and out can post in this section, that would be great!!

I currently run MAYA 7.0 and am trying to use MUDBOX 1.0.4 as my choice for displacements. With that said, most of us in the animation industry will need to know this basic workflow in great detail as a solid high poly model exported from MUDBOX just wont do, I and im sure many other maya users need a step by step example of creating a low poly mesh in maya, UV mapping a certain way and why, then exporting to .obj, then importing to mudbox and understanding the ratio of sizes between the two and if that has an effect on the final displacement map, to then showing basic mesh changed in MUDBOX, EX: show a long horn created on a sphere, and then showing the steps to get the best displacement map from Mudbox for MAYA, what setting people use and why, to the final creation of the map. And lastly how to apply that map onto the same exported sphere in maya showing the process needed to set that up in Mental Ray to get the best renderer. I know getting the displacement to fit and render out right in MAYA has been a real pain in the arse, so it would be great if someone could go through that process as well showing there steps in MAYA after they have a completed displacement in MUDBOX, to get the most out of the displacement as far as matching your mudbox creation on screen..


If all this can be summed up in either this discussion board with picture files showing everything like a detailed tutorial, that would be great. I know once this MAYA to Mudbox workflow is created and followed to a T, there will be many more amazing works coming from this great program. A great displacement is so key to a model going out to be rigged for animation. I would myself love to contribute where I can and will once I get all the info. I need and all my questions answered.

Thanks and I hope we can get more MAYA people involved with this process!



A simple sphere from MAYA would be a first good tut on the process I described above.....

1b7aec63b00825dc811e15179970ce4f.rar

48 REPLIES 48
Message 2 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Well I won't bother quoting you, but Ditto!

At least I know I'm not alone in the fact that I'm searching for answers and getting them is like pulling teeth around here.

It's simple, if I get answers I'll buy Mudbox faster than a New York minute.

Good Documentation is a must.
I will be frequenting this Thread.
Message 3 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I just wanted to jump in here and say that I've followed everything that has been posted here and I'm using Maya 7 with Mudbox with great success. Either you guys are having a hard time following whats posted or your not trying hard enough. I feel the service we've gotten from the mudbox team has been more then we can ask for.
Message 4 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I just wanted to jump in here and say that I've followed everything that has been posted here and I'm using Maya 7 with Mudbox with great success. Either you guys are having a hard time following whats posted or your not trying hard enough. I feel the service we've gotten from the mudbox team has been more then we can ask for.


Good for you Pal! I just want to let you know that is the most usless answer I have gotten so far. Do me a favor and don't pay attention to my posts. I'd rather have NO answer than an answer like yours.
Message 5 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Well First off,

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS!
if you cannot be helpful, please dont post!

in response to "Bradjames" comments, are you using MAYA 7.0 or 8.0, or both cous I know you have a couple more steps to do with 7.0 cous of the 32bit issue that 8 can solve inside MAYA itself, ide be interested in your findings??

Secondly, if it has been a breese for you, then please shed some light to the others here. I have read countless threads on the Help page and others from other forums, where there have been countless things that needed answered or not going right. If you have all the answers to the work flow I stated above with just a simple sphere, then by all means please post your findings to this rubix cube delema that seems to keep evading me and others.

It seems like with all that ive read that I am missing a few steps for some reason and would love for someone to clarify it without my own personal problems effecting everyone elses. With that said, its this simple and since you got the answers, or if anyone does, please post here:

-------------------

Please create a Poly sphere in MAYA with a scale of 1 1 1. (I say this cous I know there is an issue with the scale feature between the 2 programs, and in order for MUDBOX tools to best be used accordingly you may have to scale by 150, please write your findings with this issue too, and if that is even neccessary) Import to Mudbox and start detailing the spere into a character. Then please write down your settings with creating your displacement map, and from there, please write down your mental ray settings with newly created displacement map from mudbox so that others may see these findings rendered out in MR.

--------------------

I have yet to do this same workflow from MAYA to Mudbox back to MAYA, where the original maya sphere that got imported and detailed in Mudbox then back into MAYA was almost perfect as what I had created in MUDBOX. The closest thing I got was if I exported to high level res mesh from MUDBOX as geometry and then render in MAYA. ..If the renders on this site use that workflow then we have big problems here because majority of us use models to animate, not to create a pretty non animatable object.

I know this is not the case, so if you or anyone who has the perfect workflow for MAYA, please write down your finding here so other do not have to search a ton of pages and other forums to find one key sentence, that would be great.....

and please, for now, a work flow with a sphere would be great, and next even a workflow with a low res poly character as well. Thanks!!!!

SEL

as soon as I get my answers and workflow done, I will myself create a highly detailed tutorial for those that still have questions when this is all said and done.....
Message 6 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I do know that rendering out with MAYA 7.0 can use only 16bit maps unless converted to .map from a another proprietery software.


- Is it safe to assume you guys aren't using Mental Ray then ? The above isn't true if so. MR renders 32 bit float maps wether converted to .map format or not. Converting to .map format doesn't need proprietary software, it's a command line Mental Ray procedure, and there's a ready made app that does it for you available.

If you are using Mental Ray, Have you read the tutorial included in the MB online documentation section ? I thought it covered the process in great and thorough detail.
Message 7 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

- Is it safe to assume you guys aren't using Mental Ray then ? The above isn't true if so. MR renders 32 bit float maps wether converted to .map format or not. Converting to .map format doesn't need proprietary software, it's a command line Mental Ray procedure, and there's a ready made app that does it for you available.

If you are using Mental Ray, Have you read the tutorial included in the MB online documentation section ? I thought it covered the process in great and thorough detail.


I would be using Mental Ray, if I could get that far.
Message 8 of 49
ZippZopp10
in reply to: Anonymous

I would be using Mental Ray, if I could get that far.


so you're having issues with generating maps as opposed to actually rendering them?
Message 9 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Let me start by saying mRay for Maya 7 CAN read 32 bit, I don
Message 10 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I posted a sample file for your viewing
www.sharebigfile.com/file/98236/sphere-zip.html
Message 11 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Let me start by saying mRay for Maya 7 CAN read 32 bit, I don
Message 12 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Ive been at it all yesterday trying to get everything working. Ive managed to
figure out most things. About the 32bit dis problem with 7.0. I wrote it out of
context, I read on this forum that there was a problem with the conversion
from .tif to .map and that 8.0 had a plugin for it that 7 didnt. There is a .bat
file I downloaded that changes any image I drop into it into a .map file which
now works perfectly inside of MAYA. for some reason the imf_copy utillity thats
part of MAYA just wasnt working for me. This is a little off topic so ill continue.

With your setup, that is the workflow ive been using. Ive frequented those same
threads you posted to try to find my answers. Thanks for dropping in by the way and writing it down. Well, majority of my problem stems from two different things
that I found on two different threads on this site, one is the SEARCH DISTANCE,
by finding a correct search distance, it gives you a cleaner map without spikes which I was getting.

Secondly, was better understanding the way MUDBOX displaces by using RAYS, it basically shows that its better to have geometry that doesnt overlap and
creases and to do those inside the mudbox program itself. Ive been spending a lot of time finding out answers to common problems and majority stems back to how your mesh is created and UV mapped. In your tutorial, I think you should cover this in depth as well, because thats where I think the most problems are occuring and showing examples of how to fix would be great. The program mudbox workflow and creation of maps is FANTASTIC!! I love how easy it is, and how its very similar to MAYA as far as moving.


I know these simple steps may help others with better renders and workflow out of MAYA & MUDBOX:

0. I would scale your model that you are exporting from MAYA into mudbox as .obj by at least 150, so that MUDBOX tool settings are best used (Personal Approach)

Then re import your .obj file into your MAYA scene which is now 1 1 1 - after your finished with creating your MUDBOX displacement.

Re-scale back down in MAYA to your desired width and height EX: 0.2 scale, from there change the ALPHA GAIN Inside your Displacement to how much you scale your object by so the map aligns perfectly and fits the object. EX: 0.2 in Alpha Gain.

----------> This is purelly my own setup that I do because when I import my object in MUDBOX, it uses such small settings and creates extreme strokes with the different brushes, because of the size issue. To make the tools do what I want, I do this approach as its like using a default MUDBOX Cube, size wise... Im sure theres other approaches.....


1. Use your POLYGON/Cleanup utility <--------- Very important before you create your .obj file.

2. Make sure everything is quads or Tris!

3. Make sure your UV map has no overlapping and does not go into the negative UV space!! Also keep it inside the UV texture Editor bounding box and dont have your map stray on the edges.

4. Make sure your open geometry in your model can be hidden and brought in, EX: the eyes, you should either try to pull them back inside your models head or close as it does sometimes create spike. ( To help with this problem, finidng the right Search distance inside Mudbox will help get rid of them) Also keep away from overlapping your geometry and creases, do those inside mudbox!

5. Open your 32bit displacement map in HDRSHOP to check for spikes and problems as you may need to re bake it in Mudbox to get better results (! Is there a program that opens 32bit that your able to fix these changes with, ive been having problems with photoshop??)


These helped me so I figured I would help others who may run into these same issues I faced...


Two things I still need to address in the program now are, first I get the "error
disk space issue
" only when I size my map to 2048 by 2048 with a 32bit displacement. All the other settings stay the same and always render out whether I put them to high or good, etc. But when I change the width and height, for some reason I get the 90% Crash and need to reopen it? I dont know if that is a personal problem or if others have faces the same thing?????

and Last - Detail. I have been doing my best to get the most detail out of my displacement so that it matches best in MAYA to the way it looks in MUDBOX. Ide love to see other peoples setups of Low poly model - Mudbox model - mudbox settings - and Mental Ray settings -and results to get better results for myself.

Until I find a way to almost match the look of Mudbox inside MAYA, what I do now is have my displacement for my main detail, and a bump map for the suttle detail of pores etc. It works great for now...


Ill be sure to post more of my results as I get better...

SEL
Message 13 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

hey all, the online guides and threads have been really helpful. so far all of my displacement renderings back into maya are successful.

i did bump into a problem tonight, never encountered it before, was wondering if any of you guys would know.

my mental ray settings are:

Approx: Spatial
Min SubD: 5
Max SubD: 6
Length: 0.1

View Dependent checked, and Feature Displacement unchecked.

displacement map is 2k, 32bit, converted into a map file.


normally all of that does the trick, so i dont know what's causing the bumps above the mouth of the mental ray render. the displacement map above the mouth is clean (no overlapping UVs), so is the subD mesh (no tris/ngons). thx for any input and help!

Message 14 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

do you have tris in your mesh ?
Message 15 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

no tris/ngons
Message 16 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

It looks like a UV or topology issue
Message 17 of 49
Testure
in reply to: Anonymous

It looks like a UV or topology issue

Or a bad case of acne 😄
Message 18 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

topology looks ok to me, lines are flowing in a circular direction around the mouth

UVs were pelted

if there were problems with the topology or UVs, how would i fix them?

thx again, and no acne problems with this character!

Message 19 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Is it possibly the fact that 7 edges are joining as a star at the corners of the nose? I personaly try to keep it to just 5, (idealy just 4) edges jointing to any one vertex when i can.
Message 20 of 49
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Xskorpion,

Can you please send me your mesh to look at it. Thanks.

dave@skymatter.com

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